When you are planning to start or revamp your online marketing campaign, one of the most important components is your adherence to the “rules” of search engine optimisation, or SEO. While most of these rules aren’t necessarily written in stone, they do provide critical guidelines that can help you craft a marketing campaign that will gain better rankings on search engines, improve your visibility, and strengthen your online presence.

Part of SEO is keyword research, and you should not let this particular facet of your overall optimisation fall by the wayside in favor of other SEO options. Keyword research is essential because the keywords you choose to strategically place on your websites and landing pages are the navigation points by which a search engine will find you and present you to someone searching for what you are offering.

Keywords have evolved from single words on broad topics to hyper-specific, geo-targeted, long-tail keywords that provide a search engine user with results that are not only related to precisely what they’re searching for, but also those results that are located within the area where they live.

Keyword research should take into account natural language

Keywords are also being crafted that are more in line with the natural language that searchers use to find results. If you create keywords that align with how an online user may phrase their search request, you’re more likely to have a positive showing in the results because you’re delivering content tailored to their specific needs.

Making sure your keywords are as closely matched with your target audience’s search parameters is part of necessary keyword research. Not only should you perform research that evaluates how search engine users are requesting information specific to the product or service you are offering, but you also have to do research to determine if they are adding extra words or phrases that could refine their searches to the point where you are either ranked higher or excluded altogether.

When your SEO includes keyword research that is deliberated carefully, you’ll be able to see positive results much more quickly than if you are using bland or generic words and phrases. This will increase the traffic to your websites and landing pages, which will, in turn, increase your ability to generate qualified leads, improve your conversion rates, and achieve greater profitability with your online marketing campaigns.